The End
by Khamsin
Summary: Have you ever wondered how JK will feel when the HP legend ends? This is from her POV as she writes the last chapter. The question is- who dies? Please R&R!
1. DAY ONE

DAY 1

So here I am. Sitting with sweaty fingers poised just above the keyboard, a mug of steaming coffee to the right and a tantalisingly empty screen in front of me. I, Joanne Rowling, am just about to conclude the final book, number 7, Harry Potter and the Fulfilment of the Prophecy, The End. What would the press give to know that! Without pause I dive into the world I spent so long creating, filled with almost indecent excitement at the thought of its demise.

_Harry's eyes met Hermione's. How much more of this could they take? Would they have to take?_

Quite a lot more, actually!

_He watched her, trembling, rise to her feet. Where did she find the strength?_

"_Do you remember that day I slapped Malfoy?"_

"_Of course, we'd never seen you do anything so vicious."_

"_Well right now I'm ready to do something far worse to him." And Hermione held out her hand to pull Harry to his feet._

I pause and take a sip of my coffee, quickly re-reading. I feel suddenly angry with myself. That's no way to begin the end! I delete the page, take another fortifying gulp, and start again:

_"Harry"_

No.

_Hermione_

No. This is Harry's story.

_The umbrella bird_

Now, Jo, this is no time to be silly. I look apprehensively at the once-again blank screen. Now it looks daunting rather than welcoming. Like a cold and empty snowfield, mines and booby traps hidden beneath the silken surface, if I'm going to be poetic about it. Mines. Minesweeper – just for a few minutes.

Hmm, 130seconds today. Appalling, compared to my best.

I sit there for another 20 minutes before I give up. After all, tomorrow is another day!


	2. DAY TWO MORNING

DAY 2 - MORNING

I can tell today is going to be a good, no, great, day. Sometimes you just get this feeling where everything is filled with a perfect clarity, as if you've transcended to another level. I had it when I wrote the final draft of the very first chapter, and the Ron-Hermione kiss. It might have something to do with the baby; she/he kicked for the first time last night! If it's a girl I think I'll call her Lucia, for lucidity. I'll run it past Neil tonight. Anyway ...

_Despair. That was all Harry could feel. How could they possibly win? He looked across the forlorn shadow before him straight into Hermione's eyes. He could see his thoughts reflected there. "She's wishing she didn't overhear Ron that day, that she didn't go sobbing to the girl's toilets, then she wouldn't be here", he thought. He saw her open her mouth, try to speak, but her voice cracked and she hung her head._

_The soft rustle of robes caused Harry to turn his head slowly to the left. Framed between the shelves, was the scrawny body and twisted, vampire face of Dolohov. He thought vaguely that he should try and protect Hermione, but he couldn't remember where his wand was. An age seemed to pass before he realised it was loosely drooping from his fingers, and he slowly began to raise it, but his irritatingly sluggish brain wouldn't tell him what spell to use._

"_Expelliarmus", said Dolohov in a lazy voice._

_Harry's wand flew out of his cold, dead fingers, and worst of all, he didn't really care. How could he have left him? Everyone he loved had died. No, not everyone. Suddenly he leapt to his feet, fury filling every fibre of his body, and snatched Hermione's wand from her, "Cru-"_

"_Protego", Dolohov shouted just in time, but he still shrieked with pain._

_This fuelled Harry further, and he sneered, "Lacero!" and a bloody gash ripped across Dolohov's cheek. Harry laughed at it; it looked just like a mouth, echoing the movement of his lips as they formed the word, "Petrificus Tot-"_

_Just in time he realised what he was doing, and it was his turn to yell the shielding charm. The spell glanced aside, freezing one of the obscene dolls. Harry laughed again, filled with insane pleasure, and said, almost jovially, "Could do with a few more of those, eh?" and shot a beam of red light toward him. All reason had deserted him, he was hysterical, the dolls egging him on, kill him! Kill him!_

_The pair stared at one another for an infinite second, looking so similar in the half-light. Suddenly they both went to end it. _

_Harry flourished his wand and breathed the hiss Ron so hated, "Slithardiathhh"._

_Nothing happened. He looked down, disbelievingly at Hermione's wand. Then Dolohov's spell hit him, and he tumbled to the floor. All his hysterical passion died. He felt tortured, sick, abused._

"_You. Loose", grinned Dolohov, voice shaking with excitement. He pointed his wand at the figure still hunched over Hagrid's body, and Harry was filled with complete, total despair. "Avada Kedav-"_

Thank God I finally learnt to touch type.

"_STUPEFY!"_

_Dolohov crumpled. Wild relief flooded through Harry, so strong that only the need to know WHO, prevented him from passing out. He rolled his eyes painfully to the side, where the voice had come from. There, framed between the shelves, stood Cho Chang, her hair billowing behind her like an avenging angel._

_She pulled the wands from Dolhov's hand and the vision was gone, she was just the pretty girl he remembered, drawing closer toward him under the mistletoe. _

_Why was he thinking about this, now, of all times?_

_Cho chucked him his wand and hissed, vehemently, "Hurry up! Someone will have heard you!" Harry stumbled to his feet and pulled Hermione to her feet, shoving the strip of wood back into her hand. She was unresisting, blank, and he shook her, filled with urgency. "Come on! We've got to move!"_

_She seemed to be slowly resurfacing, like a diver, her face eerily white, and nodded. He grabbed her hand and pulled her after Cho. "It was my wand." She said, matter-of-factly. "You can't achieve something as complex as that without the wand suited to you"._

"_I know, I was being crazy, wasn't thinking"._

"_Me neither", and she gave him a weak smile, "Do you remember that day I slapped Malfoy?"_

"_Of course, we'd never seen you do anything so, so un-Hermione-ish."_

"_Well right now I'm ready to do something far worse to him."_

_They caught up with Cho just as she peered round the end of the row. _

"_All clear. Barq"._

_She started to move forward, but Harry grabbed her sleeve. "Why are you here?"_

"_Well, I'm one of the order, aren't I? Its my duty."_

"_Cho, no, listen. It IS NOT your duty. I'm the only one who can end it, understand me?"_

"_I don't care. HE MURDERED MY FAMILY."_

"_Don't you think I know how that feels? GO HOME"._

"_I don't have one! You couln't help me before, Harry Potter, and you can't help me now! I was the one who saved YOU, but the only person you don't push away is your silly little girlfriend!"_

"_Shut up, the pair of you! Harry we need all the help we can get. Cho, thank you, but we really must get moving, Ron..."_

_They both looked like they wanted to slap her, but her eyes held them with bizarre power, the power of reason, and they cautiously stepped forward. The shelves of this row were populated with Teddy bears, all hideously distorted by the half-light. Their black, pitted eyes followed the trio's progress along the corridor, tangled webs hiding their faces with silken veils. "A spindled web..."_

"JO, LUNCH!"

"Coming!"

Must remember to save, there's nothing worse than loosing a morning's work. How much do I hate computers? Even more than a plate of baked beans covered in tarantulas, that's how much.


	3. DAY TWO AFTERNOON PART ONE

**Disclaimer: It ain't mine, not trying to steal JK's stuff, Warner bro's stuff etc and not making money for it either (sadly)**

* * *

DAY 2 – AFTERNOON (PART 1)

Its seldom a reread will make me literally rub my hands together with fiendish glee, but this time I am. I feel like a world-weary burglar who has just scrambled down his hundredth chimney since he hit his tenth birthday, only to remember it's Christmas Eve and suddenly finding himself surrounded by presents. I break into a devious grin as I ponder which of the metaphorical gifts I will rip into first. I put this maniacal, evil excitement down to the gauntlet of emotions I know I will be forcing every poor reader to experience when they get to this chapter. I imagine a faceless Harry fan sitting there, eyes flying over the page in a desperate attempt to absorb the What Happens? as fast as possible, knuckles in their mouth: Fear, excitement, a sense of impending doom, to name but a few of the jolts they will experience whilst upon the rack of literacy, so to speak.

…_of silken thread"…_

_Harry shuddered, and felt Hermione's clammy hand tighten upon his arm in a weak gesture of comfort._

"_Cho", he began, knowing he had to try again, although the last thing he wanted was to explain. She turned, stubborn anger clear in every line of her body, and the tight set of her jaw. "Listen, there was a prophecy made, two, actually. One of us must die; me or Voldemort. We don't know when, or how or who. Well actually we do know when, when must be now, because of the other prophecy, that one says where, and…and… other things. And where is here, so this is it Cho, and you must go. NO MORE are going to die because of me, now GET OUT. The only reason I'm not sending Hermione away is that, is that she…"_

"_Is mentioned in the second prophecy. The part of the prophecy that says, 'The holy trinity, the one not non-existential, shattered will fall, and Fudo condemned to eternity'. It means Hermione is going to die." Cho looked at Harry, defiance still blazing but muted by her tears. "I know Harry"._

_Hazel and green stared at brown. "Ho-" began Harry but Cho cut him off by swiftly pulling up the sleeve of her robe and thrusting her forearm under his nose. "THIS is how", she hissed venomously, "This evil brand, that never lets me sleep, poisons my blood, and breaks my heart!" _

Ha! Bet everyone will think it's going to be the dark mark!

_Standing out in vivid relief upon the soft flesh of her forearm was a raised pattern of scorched and blistered skin, oozing scarlet drops of blood, which dripped as tears from the eye of the phoenix that perched insolently upon her unwilling body._

"_The seer's mark!" Gasped Hermoine, she looked at Cho piercing eyes searching her face, "You're a seer?"_

_Cho snorted, "You make it sound special. But don't forget Trewlawny's one too. She's got this blasted mark same as me, although deluded bitch that she is she talks about it like its an honour. Raves about the endurance of the phoenix, overcoming the fleshes attempt to renew its self, although don't ask me how that's a good thing, hurts like hell and never heals. Darling Dumbledore insisted though." she spat._

"_Dumbledore…" Hermione spoke as if she was in a dream, "The mark concentrates the sightings, he must have wanted you to have more…"_

"_No, he wanted to make them clearer. I eventually went to him when Madame Pomfrey couldn't cure my nightmares." She turned to Harry, "Did you think I cried for my entire sixth year just because of Cedric? It was because I kept seeing things, but they were all jumbled and I didn't understand…Dumbledore thinks Cedric's death was what kick-started it all. Like a fool I believed him when he said I shouldn't fight the visions, that having the mark would help them flow through me so they wouldn't hurt as much. He lied, but he got what he wanted; as soon as the branding was complete I made the second prophecy." Her lip curled, "Unfortunately for him though I remembered. Most people forget their visions, but I don't. He can't steal them from me then keep them secret like he wanted to. I know exactly what I have to do, and I'm going to do it." She glared imperiously at Harry and Hermione, as if daring them to contradict her._

"_You made the second prophecy?" Asked Harry quietly._

_Cho snorted once again. "Just one among many"._

"_So what you're saying is…"_

"_I'm staying. You'll need me. I know."_

_Harry studied her intently. Then without warning he flung his arms about her in a tight hug. "I'm sorry I didn't help you more, back when…" _

_Cho gave a muffled sob and he stroked her silken hair, "No I'm sorry Harry, for everything, for what I've done, and… and…what I'm going to do. Please don't hurt me Harry…"_

_Harry twitched at this, "I'd never hurt you, Cho." Her sobbing intensified against his shoulder, "Oh Harry, its so awful knowing the future, knowing everything that's going to happen…"_

Hmm, time for another coffee I think. I might have a go with that new cappuccino maker. Pretty pleased with what I've done so far, although Cho seemed to blither on a bit, but that is an annoying habit of hers, isn't it? Well, that's one present unwrapped, but I've got plenty more surprises to squeeze in. I always save the best till last, like eating the honey-covered toast before the marmite, but I think that's a good thing when you're a writer. I want to keep the readers waiting before they get to unwrap the best shocker I've got hidden up my sleeve. A giant mammoth sized parcel from a long lost relative doesn't quite do it justice, does it?

* * *

**AN, thanks to all my wonderful reviewers, keep it up! Seeing Review alert! in my inbox makes my day (I have a very sad life).**


	4. DAY TWO AFTERNOON PART TWO

DAY 2- AFTERNOON (PART 2)

_Harry pushed Cho away, still gripping her tightly by the shoulders. When she refused to look at him he gently pushed her chin up and looked deep into her eyes._

"_You know what's going to happen?" He whispered, "How it will end?"_

_She stared at him for an immeasurable moment, eyes roaming over his worn and wearied face. Then nodded._

_His hands tightened involuntarily and she gasped. "Cho, I must know, I must. You have to tell me."_

"_No…" She breathed, looking at the floor._

"_Tell me Cho!" He pushed her slightly, releasing her chin._

_Cho took a deep, shuddering breath and then looked straight at him. "No."_

"_TELL ME GOD DAMNIT!" Harry roared and Cho jumped. He shook her, hard this time. "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND YOU SILLY LITTLE GIRL?"_

"_I can't. Ow, you're hurting me… ow… stop, stop, please…"_

_He was shaking her as hard as he could. Hermione was clutching at his sleeve, trying to pull his arm away, panic in her eyes, "Stop Harry!"_

_Harry was like a cat with a mouse being dangled before him, just out of reach. There was madness blazing like black fire in his eyes, "TELL ME! TELL ME!" His right arm drew back then he punched Cho with all his might across her cheek. A sickening crack sounded. "TELL ME! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! I DON'T WANT to DIE! I don't want to die…" and he pushed her away sobbing, face in his hands and he collapsed upon the floor. "Mum…dad…I'm sorry…help me…don't let me die…"_

_Hermione sank down onto the dusty floor next to Harry, wrapping her arms around him, resting her head upon his head, slowly rocking him back and forth as his bitter sobs rent the air. "Sssh", she whispered, "sssh, it's going to be OK", her hand rhythmically stroking his hair, eyes never leaving Cho's. _

_Eventually his tears ebbed and he looked up, emerald orbs greener than they had ever been, washed clean of the ebony fires of darkness by the release of years of stifled emotion. Red-rimmed they were, as were those of Hermione and Cho. Pain filled his expression as he looked at Cho, clutching her blacked face. "You promised", she said voice expressionless._

"_I'm sorry. Never ag-"_

_Quickly she moved toward him and placed a finger upon his lips. "No more promises. Just know this, I forgive you."_

_Hermione spoke then, body still laid along Harry's back, "We're all in this to the end". Her voice cracked, "Whenever our ends may be." She stood up and proffered a hand to each of them, pulling them to their feet. _

"_We better run, it's a miracle there are no Death Eaters here already."_

"_I thought you'd know better than to believe in miracles, Harry", Hermione teased, "I cast a silencing spell"._

"_Fudo indeed", Cho sighed, "Fudo indeed"._

I quite like the way I've managed to slot in the Japanese God as a clue, I've not put much oriental mythology into the book so it should stand out as a hint as to the maker of the second prophecy. The second prophecy, now that was a bloody nightmare, almost as bad as chapter nine of GoF. I don't think its _too_ dramatic, I mean the language in itself acts as a clue, Trelawny is a bit of a simpleton at heart, so hers is pretty basic, but Cho (funny how I think of them by their first and last names) is more passionate, a deeper more emotional person, so hers is poetic. I wonder if I should admit that 'a spindled web of silken thread' is from a verse I wrote when I was ten?

* * *

AN: Sos about the reduced amount of Jo in the last couple of chapters, I wanted to get the actual story rolling before I got to carried away writing from her POV. hope the chappies aren't _too_ short, the next one is going to be much longer and the one after that will be almost entirely devoted to Jo. Once again thanks to my lovely, lovely reviewers; Peacebunnie, Lozw00, bob (because i _lurve_ responding to flamers; see your personal response below ;) ), Mmm...Mr Darcy (I agree with your name), Padma, blah, J-R-S CRAZY and Tikvah Ariel xoxoxoxox 


End file.
